Buttons
by fakegodsanddemigods
Summary: Rose is realizing just how often the King of Hell has to be away. It's starting to get a little lonely around the house but she manages to make it by when she finds a wrinkled shirt of his left behind in the laundry room.


Rose was getting more used to not having him around than she would have liked. Some days it felt like she was living alone. But in those moments Rose always found something to remind her of the life she'd built with Crowley. Sometimes it was something as simple as an empty bottle of wine left on the counter. Other times it was a tangle of clothing laying in the hallway that they'd been too eager for each other to think about. It made missing him bearable. Somehow. It gave her hope that he'd come home…he always seemed to. Always had before.

It never ceased to amaze her just how much she'd grown to trust him. Though, it was hard not to trust the man who had pulled you up from Purgatory. Crow had found her when she needed someone most. Just when she'd started to lose faith in herself and everyone around her, he had given her a reason to believe. He had taken a broken girl and taught her how to live again. Funny…the King of Hell teaching a human woman how to live. But, it was true. Without him, she would still be stuck in a forest of darkness and descending further and further into a state of being someone she wasn't. She still would have been working for Lucifer doing things her nightmares hadn't even thought of. Hell, she probably would have died a few times over and lost even more of herself.

But that didn't matter. None of the probablys or maybes or would-have-beens were ever going to matter anymore. Crowley had found. He had taken her in despite the circumstances that surrounded them and he had loved her in his own way.

And for that, she could be patient.

She would have waited a lifetime for him. And there were times, especially times like this, in which she felt she already had. But that was just fine. It was worth it. Anything was worth it to see him walk through that door, to feel his arms around her and his lips pressed against hers. Crow was worth the world.

But knowing that didn't stop Rose from getting lonely. It didn't stop her from missing him when Hell called him away for days at a time. She tried, though. And she had done so well with occupying herself and busying herself so that it didn't cross her mind nearly as often as it could. But there was only so much you could do to push missing someone out of your mind.

It was one of those nights where nothing on television seemed to be holding her attention and any book she picked up she had to read the same line over and over again just to make sure she knew what was written in front of her. Her mind kept floating to him. It was the longest she'd been without him. The longest she'd had to curl up alone in bed at night and wonder if something had finally gotten him. It seemed silly…especially when her phone would light up with a text to let her know he missed her every few hours. She shouldn't have missed him this terribly.

But she did.

With a loud sigh, she tossed her book on the coffee table and stood to make her way to the laundry room. With any luck…Ah, yes. She hadn't had to do laundry since he'd been gone. There hadn't been any of his dress shirts getting muddied up. And there it was…a lavender button down laying on top of the washing machine. Tossed away and discarded in the heat of a moment that had caught both of them off guard.

And somehow that one shirt had managed to avoid being washed. She reached out and pulled it to her to bury her face against the fabric. It smelled like him. It was and odd gesture, but if she closed her eyes she could feel him standing there as his scent filled the air around her. Oh, that helped. Much more than anything else had.

With a smile, she tugged her pajama pants off and pulled her shirt over her head before slipping the shirt around her. Her fingers danced over the buttons as she closed it over herself, leaving the top few buttons undone. The shirt enveloped her. Crow wasn't much taller than she, but he certainly had a larger middle that she couldn't help but love which meant that the shirt hung loosely to her mid thigh and fit her much more comfortably than she could have imagined. And it smelled like them.

When she closed her eyes she could even imagine he was holding her. It made everything better. It pushed the missing away and helped fight off her worries and fears. Who would have thought a shirt could do that?

It wasn't hard to fall asleep. Especially with his shirt pulled around her and her head on his pillows. Even her dreams were pleasant. More so than they'd been since the day he'd left for work. She could do this. No matter how long she had to wait.

By the time she stood in the kitchen to make breakfast, her hair was touseled in the mess of a bed head and the shirt had a few more wrinkles than it had the night before. But she refused to take it off. Refused to change. It was the only thing in the house that smelled distinctly of Crow.

She was still standing in the kitchen deciding on breakfast when she heard a key in the lock of the front door. When the door finally opened she was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, hope in her eyes that pulled her lips into the brightest of smiles when he came through the door in his pressed suit.

Even his lips tugged up into the quirk of a grin before he moved forwards to pull her into his arms. "Rosie…" He pressed his lips firmly to her forehead before pulling away, his hands on her shoulders, and looked her over. Crowley couldn't supress his chuckle at the sight of her, rumpled dress shirt more than a couple of sizes to big and her hair wild from sleep. "You stole my shirt. Are you really that far behind on laundry?"

Rose's cheeks flushed a bright pink and she dipped her head slightly. "No. Of course not." She turned to look up at him with a shy smile. "It just smelled like you. That's all."

He rolled his eyes and tried to hide the grin pulling at his lips. No matter how guilty he may have felt for leaving her behind over such an extended period, there was no denying that it just felt good to see how much she missed him. He'd always been told it was impossible for anyone to love a demon. But, of course, it would have been his Rose who proved them all wrong.

"You don't have anything on under there." His own way of letting her know that she'd been missed.

A smirk played across her lips as she draped her arms around his neck. "Nope. Nothing at all."

He pressed his lips roughly to hers, his arms snaking around her waist as he he held her tightly to him. "I say it's time for bed."

Rose nodded, returning the kiss and taking a step backwards, thankful for the moment that he stepped forwards and followed her along, his lips finding hers once more in a hungry kiss.

Before they'd reached the bedroom, the lavender shirt had already found it's way to the floor of the hallway. Just the beginning of another pile of clothes that they were too busy to remember.


End file.
